


absence makes the heart grow fonder

by rangerhitomi



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: CFVG Era, Embarrassment, Kissing Without Thinking, M/M, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-01 23:25:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17253350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rangerhitomi/pseuds/rangerhitomi
Summary: Aichi missed Kai. A lot. A lot more than he realized at first, until there he is, waiting in the airport with a smile on his face, and Aichi loses all sense of propriety.





	absence makes the heart grow fonder

"We are now beginning our descent..."

Around him, people buckle themselves in. The American couple next to him chats animatedly about the things they were going to do in Tokyo, the places they were visiting, the foods they would eat. All Aichi can think about is seeing his mother and Emi, eating his favorite food, playing Vanguard with his friends...

_Seeing Kai._

To distract himself, he looks out the window. The towering buildings, so different from the rural landscape of Connecticut, fill his view; the excitement of walking through the bustling streets, hearing the noises of city life he'd never thought he'd miss, wells up inside of him like a balloon filled to max capacity, ready to burst out of him at any second.

"I'm home," he whispers to the research he finished translating during the long flight, and it's maybe a silly sentiment, but he's so happy he could cry.

A slight bounce, the plane lands. There's the slight delay between the plane parking and the flight attendants collecting food wrappers and cups, and finally they can get up.

There are too many people at the front of the plane gathering their belongings, and Aichi is in the back. It'll be a few minutes, so he turns on his phone to several messages.

_Someone will be picking you up at 1:30_ from Misaki, _Can't wait to see you!_ from Kamui, _Mom cleaned your room and found a missing sock that we can't find the mate for anywhere?_ from Emi, _I hope this issue with the Association doesn't ruin your vacation, I'm sure you had other plans for it_ from Ibuki.

Notable among the messages is one absence.

Aichi's balloon of happiness deflates somewhat as he makes his way off the plane and into the airport. Messages about boarding and arriving flights mingle together. It's 1:35; hopefully whoever is picking him up is prompt (he suspects they will be if Misaki has planned for them to be). A quick check of the list of arriving flights tells him which baggage claim he should go to, so he leaves the secured area of the airport and enters the place where hundreds of passengers and loved ones are greeting one another and people are ordering taxis or buying bus tickets.

Aichi doesn't know who is picking him up (Misaki had only said she would send 'someone' from the Association to make sure he got home) so he collects his suitcase and makes his way toward the exit, peering over people the best he could, searching out someone he might recognize--

The noise around him drops to a low buzz in his ears as he sees his ride home and drops his suitcase.

Kai likely doesn't hear Aichi call out his name, and as he looks around the baggage claim area, he must not see Aichi before being barreled into and nearly losing his footing.

He's warm, and soft, and smells of dye-free laundry soap and coffee, and as Aichi tightens his arms around Kai's waist, Kai rests his own arms around Aichi's shoulders.

"Welcome home," Kai whispers into Aichi's hair, and it's everything Aichi had dreamed it would be, here, embracing Kai and Kai embracing him, the world spinning around them in slow motion as though they were the only ones on it.

"I've missed you so much."

"I've missed you too."

Aichi pulls back enough to look up at Kai, Kai's gentle face and tousled hair, his eyes soft and warm as he looks into Aichi's, and it's too much, too overwhelming for Aichi's senses to take control, and maybe he's too tired from the flight and jetlagged and overstimulated from the amount of studying he'd done over the past week for his finals, but he loses control of himself and pulls himself up by Kai's shoulders and presses their lips together.

They had never kissed, never dated, never even held hands in any meaningful way; Aichi had always longed to but never had the courage, and Kai was Kai, but as they stood in the crowded airport terminal with Aichi's arms around Kai's shoulders, it seemed like the thing to _do--_

\--and so here Aichi is, kissing Kai Toshiki, the way he had always dreamed he would have the courage to do.

He pulls away the second he comprehends the situation, with Kai's hands held out to the side and his face frozen, wide-eyed, and Aichi feels as though he might melt into the floor.

"Ah--ah... ah! My suitcase!"

Aichi turns to retrieve his discarded luggage but Kai catches him by the wrist and Aichi is forced to turn and face the object of his most embarrassing desires and deepest longing, his first and strongest crush, his eternal rival and dearest friend, whom he just hugged and kissed like a lover he had returned to after months apart.

"Aichi," Kai says in a quiet voice, barely audible over the intercom repeating _Flight 3498 to Hong Kong now boarding at Gate Nine, please have your tickets and passport ready,_ "I..."

"I'm so sorry!" Aichi covers his face with his free hand. He could fry an egg on his face with how hot it is. "I shouldn't have... I don't know why I did that! I-I-I-I just...!"

"Aichi," Kai says again, and rather than releasing Aichi, he pulls Aichi in close again in a vice-like embrace.

They haven't spoken face-to-face in so long, halfway across the world from one another, with occasional phone calls and video chats, Kai letting Aichi know that Emi had this-or-that to remind him to do, or Aichi practicing his English, or Kai lamenting that Gaillard left dishes in the sink overnight. Aichi doesn't remember at what point in his life he'd started thinking about Kai as anyone more than a rival and a friend, but here in Kai's arms, knees threatening to give way beneath him, he has never felt more at peace in Kai's presence.

Aichi's hands find Kai's waist, slender and curved, almost effeminate, yet it is one of the many features Aichi finds most striking, most alluring, and his heart burns with embarrassment, his face is on fire, as he resists the urge to touch the skin under Kai's shirt. He is sure it is as soft as the rest of him.

Kai twitches under his touch. "Aichi... I didn't... I didn't mind..."

Too many emotions battle for Aichi's attention at that moment, too many thoughts and words and questions. But as he struggles to speak, another voice cuts into the moment.

"Excuse me, sir, but is this your suitcase?"

Aichi pulls away from Kai, a jolt going through his body like lightning. "M-Miwa-kun!"

Miwa holds out his arms. "Gimme a hug, Aichi!"

They embrace, in a way Aichi imagines is normal for friends to do, not with the same intimacy as with Kai, that feeling that he would lose part of himself if he let go. Kai stares intently at a nearby sign imploring _If you see something, say something!_ without really acknowledging Miwa, though when Miwa points at his own face and whines _where's my kiss, Aichi?_ Kai huffs and drags Aichi away toward the Association car parked with questionable legality in a fire lane.

Kai drops Miwa off at Card Capital first for his shift, deflecting every single one of Miwa's embarrassingly intrusive questions about their relationship, and when Kai pulls the car in front of Aichi's house, he climbs out first to open the door for Aichi.

They're alone now, at least until the moment when Aichi's mother and Emi will come sprinting out the front door to latch onto Aichi, and Aichi still has so many things he wants to say.

He licks his lips. "Kai-kun... I... please stay over tonight."

It's incredibly forward, too bold for someone who had only just managed to kiss Kai Toshiki.

"I-I mean, not like, not for that, for, I just--"

Kai laughs, a soft, beautiful sound that Aichi has heard far too infrequently. "I don't want to intrude on your family time, Aichi."

"You're... you're like my family too, Kai-kun..."

A slow shake of the head. "Not tonight, Aichi."

"Not... tonight?" It's hard to hide his disappointment. He'd thought, perhaps...

Kai reaches for Aichi's hand, but stops mid-gesture and clenches his fist. Aichi holds out his own hand, and Kai lets him take his with it.

"You should be with your family tonight," Kai repeats, staring at their hands. "But tomorrow, or... or whenever the mission ends... I... It would be nice to..."

The front door opens; his mother and sister scream his name and rush out the door. Emi throws herself at him, chiding him through tears of happiness that he was late, and his mother wraps him in her arms, her face no less wet from crying.

There is some merit to Kai's request that Aichi spend time with his family tonight, Aichi thinks, as he and Kai hold one another for a moment too long, a little too close. As Kai leaves, promising to see him tomorrow, and Aichi waves him off until the car is out of sight, Emi looks at him, eyebrow tilted.

"So I guess you _didn't_ meet anyone cute in America?"

(It's not until three in the morning that Aichi wakes with a start to realize what Emi had implied.)


End file.
